At TCT, DES Use and Safety Concerns: Irrational Exuberance or Irrational Anxiety?

The bomb over drug-eluting stent (DES) safety that went off in Barcelona last September at the World Cardiology Congress was still reverberating six weeks later at this year's Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) meeting in Washington. At the WCC meeting, researchers presented data on the incidence of thrombosis, particularly sub-acute, between 1 and 12 months, and late stent thrombosis, more than 12 months, compared with the risk in bare metal stents (BMS), and the headlines blared the scary findings: "Are DES Killing Patients?" read one. Also see "Renewed DES Safety Debate Creates Second Generation Mover Advantage " - In Vivo, 1 October, 2006.

Six weeks later at TCT, interventionalists and researchers, including some who had presented in Barcelona, sought eagerly to put what...